


Legends in Exile

by SereneSorrow



Series: Legends in Exile [1]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), Justice League & Justice League Unlimited (Cartoons), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Eventual Smut, Legends of Tomorrow Episode 12 Promo, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-21
Updated: 2016-09-30
Packaged: 2018-06-03 16:31:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 17,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6617989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SereneSorrow/pseuds/SereneSorrow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Captain Rip Hunter has assembled a team of six heroes to travel the multiverse and save entire universes from destruction, one Earth at a time. On Earth 528 The Rogues have traveled back in time to kill their enemies as children, and it's the Legends job to save their younger selves from the enemies they know so well.  On Earth 877 a Thanagarian invasion must be stopped.<br/>First chapter inspired by the commercial for episode 12 of Legends of Tomorrow.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Earth 528

**Author's Note:**

> This is a not-for-profit fanwork. All characters are the property of their respective copyright holders.  
> I wasn't sure about using the violence tag, I don't really think it's graphic... if it is let me know and I'll add the tag, but since it's already got the 'Explicit' rating...well just let me know if you think it needs any other tags.  
> Assume that both Len and Barry are 10 years old in the “past” I guess, I didn't really think about it when I started writing, and the E rating is for the very end of the chapter... ;)

     The Reverse Flash was going to travel back in time to kill Barry Allen. Why? Because in his own time he had already killed the Flash, and with no one left to challenge him he was looking for a new entertainment. Altering the time/space continuum and potentially creating a time paradox that may or may not destroy reality as Earth 528 knew it might just be the entertainment he was looking for.  
      Of course this was exactly what landed him on the Waverider's radar.  
      “So wait, how is it entertaining to kill me as a child without my speed, when he's already managed to beat me in the future with my speed? I mean isn't Eobard's obsession with the Flash about the challenge? What's the challenge for him here?” Barry asked after Gideon had explained the disaster that they needed to prevent on this next Earth.  
      “Well four months ago I would have said that time travel would be a challenge for anyone.” Kendra said.  
      “What I want to know is what problem Weather Wizard has with me.” Leonard drawled from the doorway he and Mick were leaning in.  
      “Yeah, why would Eobard bring Weather Wizard and Killer Frost back with him? Since when does he work with other criminals anyway?” Barry chimed in.  
      “The Reverse Flash is more involved with the Rogues of Earth 528 than your own future, Flash. His teammates are similarly obsessed with their opposing heroes as he is. Killer Frost has been obsessed with killing Firestorm since their divorce, and Weather Wizard with getting his revenge on Captain Cold since he betrayed the Rogues and became a hero.” Gideon replied.  
      “So can I assume that you have some sort of plan already in mind Mr. Hunter?” Martin asked their leader at the head of the table.  
      Rip Hunter looked up from the projections that hovered above the table before them. “All three of the attacks are set for the same time, the middle of the night. Which means that you will have to be split into three teams. Since Firestorm's powers cancel out Killer Frost's own Firestorm and Heatwave will deal with her. Flash will stop Weather Wizard, since he has plenty of experience with that already, and Captain Cold and Hawkgirl will stop the Reverse Flash.”  
      “Hold on, I've defeated Eobard before, and it was the me from the future that stopped him from killing the me in the past on my own Earth too!” Barry argued.  
      “The Reverse Flash on this Earth has already killed a more experienced Flash, but the cold gun's affect on speedsters can incapacitate Eobard long enough for Hawkgirl to restrain him with the power dampening collar.” Rip explained.  
***  
      Young Barry Allen woke up to the sound of the front door closing. He got out of bed nervously, wondering who used the door when his parents were asleep. He hoped that he had only imagined the sound, or that it was something else he had heard, but he wanted to see just to be sure. He came down the stairs slowly, and stopped when he saw a man in a winter coat and a woman in leather moving through the house.  
      He began to creep back up the stairs to his parents room as quietly as he could but suddenly he was in the living room, and he fell to his knees feeling dizzy. He looked up and a yellow blur was streaking through the room, Barry realized that his breath was coming out in puffs of fog and suddenly the lights flipped on. His parents dashed into the room but were knocked aside, tumbling into walls and over furniture as the yellow blur streaked by. Suddenly the woman in leather jumped into the room, giant wings spreading out behind her as she tried to shield his parents from the yellow blur. His mother was on the floor in front of him, covered in blood, and his father was trying to help but Barry didn't know what to do, _what could he do?_  
      He watched the woman standing between his family and the blur, and the man in the winter coat was firing some sort of gun that made ice cover everything. Slowly Barry started to see that inside the yellow blur was actually a man in a yellow suit, an angry man that had hurt his mom.  
***  
      The Reverse Flash was nothing but a yellow blur as he dodged every shot from the cold gun. Captain Cold kept firing as quickly as possible, to keep Eobard from knocking the weapon from his hands. Hawkgirl stood in front of the Allens with her wings spread as Henry tried to stop Nora's bleeding, Barry behind all of them pressed into a corner of the room.  
The floor was starting to freeze, but Cold couldn't tell yet if the Reverse Flash was moving any slower than he had been before, hopefully he could keep a hold of the cold gun long enough for it to make a difference. He had agreed with Rip's plan in the theory that cold affects speedsters, but he didn't have the experience of predicting Eobard's movements the way he did with Barry. Eobard was more deliberate and calculating, he didn't bounce off the walls like Barry did and that might make all the difference now.  
***  
      The woman's wings shot out at the yellow blur like she was throwing a punch and the man in yellow tripped, skidding across the icy floor and into the wall. The man in the coat shot ice at the man in yellow's feet, sticking him to the ground as he struggled to break free. The woman circled around, avoiding getting in the ice man's way and put a collar around the man in yellow's neck. As soon as she did the man in yellow stopped moving faster than everyone else.  
      The ice man took the phone from the table and came toward Barry, crouching down in front of him. “Barry, you need to call 911 for your mom.” He said, holding the phone out.  
      Barry was scared, his mom was hurt, but he looked into the hood of the coat and saw the ice man's face. He wasn't wearing a mask like the man in yellow or the bird woman, there was a pair of goggles around his neck but Bary could see his eyes, and Barry thought that he looked sad.  
***  
      Leonard climbed out of the window after his father, the other thieves following behind. This wasn't the first time that his father had made him come along on a robbery, sometimes he needed someone with smaller hands to reach into smaller spaces. Leonard didn't like it, but after a successful job his father wasn't as likely to hit him or Lisa, and that was worth it.  
It was windy outside, really windy, and they stumbled against the gusts as they made their way to the van. Suddenly a man stepped around the side of it, and the wind seemed to flow from his hands.  
      “I'm going to enjoy killing you again Captain Cold! I came all the way back from the future for this!” The man shouted, throwing the swirling wind from his hands towards them. The two whirlwinds swirled to either side of Leonard and scooped up his father and his crew, throwing them away and slamming them into walls and cars.  
      “Back off Weather Wizard, he's just a kid!” A voice shouted. Leonard jerked away as a man in some kind of red leather costume suddenly appeared next to him. A mask covered some of his face but not enough to hide his expression.  
      “Flash? But you're dead!” The 'Weather Wizard' shouted. Waving his arms and suddenly shards of ice were pelting towards them. Leonard was lifted off his feet and carried by the 'Flash' behind a car.  
      “Stay put Len.” Flash said with a huge smile.  
     Leonard stared after him, hearing the crackling of lighting on the other side of the street. He looked over the car and saw the red blur circling around what looked like a tornado until suddenly the man that had attacked him was thrown into a car.  
      “Hey Len, I'm sorry about that, he's not going to bother you again.” The Flash said, appearing beside him again with another huge grin.  
***  
      They take the Reverse Flash, Weather Wizard and Killer Frost to the Crystal Prison. Barry still doesn't like it but he admits that he can't come up with a better way to keep the villains from trying the same thing again once the team has moved on to another Earth. At least not all of their missions have ended this way, and Captain Hunter says that some of the prisoners have been released before, so it might not be forever.  
***  
***  
Earth 528, 15 Years Later  
      “Barry give me one good reason why you're not giving this guy a call.” Iris said, leaning over his desk.  
      Barry looked up at his sister, everyone at the station was used to Iris hanging around so she didn't mind distracting him from work to finish their conversation even though he was already working late after coming in late that morning. Last night they had gone out to some club that Iris liked and Barry had never heard of because Iris had recently decided to make it her mission in life to find him a boyfriend. She was pretty determined ever since she had realized that he hadn't had a relationship that lasted longer than a month or two. Barry knew why that was, but he knew what Iris would say if he told her that he'd been in love with someone for over a decade already. Someone brave and strong, with ice blue eyes. Okay so maybe he was romanticizing the past but he'd never been able to get the man that had saved his family when he was a child out of his mind.  
      “Iris I just don't think that he's right for me.”  
      “Barry you have to give someone a chance. What are you waiting for?”  
      “I don't know, I just, I don't know.”  
      “Fine, then I will let you get back to work, and then we can see if we can make it to STAR Labs before they turn on the particle accelerator. Maybe there will be a nice handsome geek there looking for someone just like you.” Iris said, skipping away to another desk.  
      Barry sighed. She wasn't going to let it go, but then that was one of the things he loved most about Iris. How much she cared about him, like he was really her brother, not just someone her father had taken in after his parents were killed in a burglary. It had happened on his mother's birthday, only a year after the man in yellow had attacked them, but he was still grateful to the ice man for giving them one more year.  
      He worked as quickly as he could but they ended up watching the news coverage of the accelerator while he kept working. The storm outside had gotten steadily worse in the last hour and Barry was struggling with the window that had been blown open when the news announced that something had gone wrong at STAR Labs.  
***  
      “Barry!” Iris cried. The nurse held her back as they wheeled Barry deeper into the hospital. All around her people crowded into the hospital, bringing in more injured and unconscious. So many people had been hurt when the particle accelerator exploded, sending a shock wave through the city. The police had all been called in, and Barry wasn't the only one in the precinct that had been injured when the lightning bolt had hit.  
***  
***  
8 Months Later  
      “Dr. Stone, something's happening in the Ice Room!” Vibe's voice called over the speaker, echoing through STAR Labs.  
Silas looked up from the readings he and Dr. Wells were looking at from their patients in the 'Lightning Room' as Cisco called it.  
      “Go, I'll keep working here.” Dr. Wells said from his daughter's bedside.  
      Dr. Stone raced to the Ice Room, another of the inappropriately named labs that had been turned into hospital rooms after they had realized what the particle accelerator explosion had done. The explosion had caused an unknown form of radiation to saturate the city and with the storm that night and any number of events then and since, interacting with the radiation was causing people at random to develop strange abilities. Many of them had been spontaneously dropping into comas in the moment they were affected but often their abilities were evident even as they lay unconscious, thus Cisco was naming the rooms their patients were placed in based on these abilities. The 'Lightning Room' was named for Barry Allen and Jessie Wells' suddenly impossibly fast heart rates that caused power drains and blackouts in regular hospitals, when normal doctors thought Mr. Allen was having a heart attack his heart was really beating too fast for their instruments to measure. The 'Ice Room' was named for the John Doe and their own Caitlin Snow whose abilities were different but had the same after affect of covering everything in the room with ice.  
      Cisco was already inside, at the bedside of the John Doe, who was now covered in ice that was inches thick. “It's like a cocoon, I just had a vibe that he's going to 'hatch' after this thing finishes forming. Like as soon as he makes it cold enough in here he's just going to wake up.”  
      Silas checked the temperature readings. The man's core body temperature was decreasing, but the rest of his vital signs were holding steady, and in the past few months he had come to trust Cisco's 'vibes'. If Cisco thought that the man would come out of this on his own then Silas was willing to trust his judgement.  
***  
      Hot. He was too hot, _why was this room so hot?_ Len struggled to wake up, to open his eyes. He didn't know why it was so difficult. The heat was making him groggy, bogging him down, he wanted it to be cooler. Finally he managed to open his eyes, and he immediately tried to sit up but a hand came down on his chest pushing him back down to the bed. The hand felt like fire on his skin.  
      “Whoa, hold on there, you just woke up take it easy.” Len heard someone say. He looked around, there were two men standing next to his bed. His bed that was a hospital bed, his bed that was covered in _ice_.  
      “What's going on? What is this?” He asked, pushing the younger man's hand away from him, it still burned.  
      “You've been in a coma for eight months, you need to take a minute, try to stay calm.” The man said.  
      “Why is there ice everywhere?” Len asked, realizing that it wasn't just his bed, the entire room was covered in ice.  
      “We should take this slow, I'm Cisco, this is Dr. Stone.”  
      “You're in STAR Labs, we've been monitoring your condition. This ice, you're the one creating it. You're body temperature is currently 0° Celsius, it dropped 27° in the last twenty minutes. For the last eight months it seemed to be holding steady at 10° lower than normal but apparently you needed to go colder before you could wake up.” Dr. Stone said.  
      Len just stared at them. That couldn't be right. _He was creating all this ice?_ How would something like that even be poss- wait. He had already seen the impossible, a man who could create a tornado, a man who could run faster than you could see. Creating ice was like that... he was something like the man who had saved him fifteen years ago. The man with the smile he had never forgotten.  
      He let out a slow breath, one that didn't fog the air the way that Dr. Stone's or Cisco's did. He sat up more slowly this time, shrugging off the hand that Cisco once again reached towards him. “You're too hot, it feels like a burn when you touch me.” He explained.  
      The two men glanced at each other. “We'll need to run some tests on that, you're whole temperature change too. It may have been necessary to wake you up but it might not be the temperature you're supposed to be day to day.” Dr. Stone said.  
      Now that he was sitting up he could see that on the other side of the room was another bed with a woman in it. “Who's that?”  
      “That's Caitlin, she worked here until the particle accelerator blew up. You seem to be extending cold outward creating ice from the water around you whereas she seems to be drawing heat in from her surroundings leaving the water to freeze, similar but not Quite the same.” Cisco said. “Oh, and we don't actually know your name, the hospital didn't know who dropped you off so you were a John Doe.”  
      That was good, if they knew who he was they probably would have had police guarding the door. But he would have to give them a name now and he didn't have an alias lined up, the two he'd had eight months ago could have been used by someone else in his father's crew by now, _but would these people be looking for information about him?_ If he cooperated enough they might not look into his past at all. Before he could come up with anything the woman in the other bed suddenly sat up, gasping audibly.  
      “Caitlin!” Cisco cried, running over to her.  
      “The monitor's didn't change, how did she wake up?” Dr. Stone asked, turning some dials on the machines.  
      Caitlin wasn't answering any of Cisco's questions, Len could see her staring at her pale hands and snow white hair without recognition. When Cisco's hand touched her shoulder she jumped, and then grabbed for him, and Cisco fell to the floor as frost started to creep over him.  
      “Caitlin! Let him go, you need to let him go.” Dr. Stone said, taking a step back from her bed.  
      She absorbed heat, _was she absorbing Cisco's heat? Was she killing him?_ Len realized that Dr. Stone didn't know what to do, he was backing away and reaching for a phone on the wall, probably about to call for someone _but would that be in time to help the man who seemed to be her friend?_ _The man she was killing?_ Len didn't like killing people, he didn't even really like stealing, even though he was good at it. That was just from all the practice, doing what his father told him because he didn't see any other option, but he always drew the line at killing even if it made his father call him weak. Dr. Stone had said though, that his ability was different from Caitlin's. She absorbed heat and he radiated cold, but his body was at 0° right now, there wasn't really any heat for her to absorb.  
      Len struggled up out of the bed that was still covered in ice, and slowly staggered across the room. He had to move slow because of how weak being in a coma for so long had made his body, but he reached the other side of the room where Caitlin was now crouched on the floor over Cisco who was barely breathing. Len fell to his knees, the quickest way to reach them really, and grabbed Caitlin's wrists. He pulled, dragging her away from Cisco but she fought him as soon as her hands left Cisco's skin. Around them both the ice on the floor began rising up in spikes and Len tried to roll/drag them as far away from Cisco as he could but Caitlin started screaming and clawing at him and then ice shot out of her hands directly at his face. It stung, the impact of it, and his face was covered in ice. The temperature may not bother him but apparently he still needed to breathe and he couldn't. He let go of her wrists to claw at the ice covering his mouth and nose and he knew she would be moving away but he couldn't stop her if he couldn't breathe.  
      After an eternity of struggling a large hand grabbed his face and something cracked away the ice, Len gasped for air, only peripherally aware of the large man that seemed to be mostly made of metal. Once he was breathing normally again he saw that two more doctors were checking on Cisco who seemed to be doing a little better and the metal man was talking with Dr. Stone about Caitlin. The metal man left the room and Dr. Stone approached him.  
      “Thank you for helping Cisco, I don't know why Caitlin would have attacked him, they were close before. How are you feeling?”  
      “I don't know, pretty much the same as before now that I can breathe. I thought since my temperature was so low there wouldn't be much she could do to me.”  
      Dr. Stone gave him an odd look. “What is it about having these abilities that makes so many metahumans want to be heroes?”  
      Len assumed he was speaking rhetorically.  
***  
      So Dr. Stone wasn't speaking rhetorically. There was an actual team of heroes that operated out of STAR Labs. Dr. Stone's son Victor, or Cyborg; another STAR Labs employee Ronnie Raymond and a Professor Stein who could somehow combine into one person named Firestorm; _another_ STAR employee Hartley Rathaway, or Pied Piper; and Cisco himself going by the name Vibe. Apparently the police and the public were aware that there was a team but didn't know just who the heroes themselves were, except for a pair of detectives, Joe West and Eddie Thawne who worked with the team as well.  
      Len knew all of this, was told all of this, because Cyborg hadn't been able to stop Caitlin from leaving STAR Labs. They didn't have any idea how to catch her, and they did need to because police reports showed that she was killing people by draining the heat out of them, leaving frost covered bodies all over the city. He could get close to her without being in danger from that though, so Dr. Stone and Cyborg had invited him to join the team. At least temporarily while the doctors figured out how to help Len with his abilities, learning to control the way the temperature in a room would drop suddenly, or how sometimes frost would start to form on any surface near him.  
      He had finally taken Cisco aside, since he seemed like the most carefree member of the team and therefore the least likely to overreact, and explained that he had been a thief before all of this. That he had worked with his father since he was a child but that he didn't want to go back to that, that he had seen something when he was a child that made him want to do better now that he had this ability. It was difficult for him to say. He was so used to keeping his feelings secret from everyone that revealing something personal, something that could get him in trouble, was usually impossible. But once he had explained that he was worried about how detectives West and Thawne might come after him the second they saw his face (probably the next time his father stole something or got arrested) in the files the police had on his father, Cisco had agreed to keep his past identity a secret and to talk to the detectives if that ever happened. He also said that as long as Len stayed on the right side of the law from now on and worked with their team to help people Joe and Eddie would see that he was a good person. Len wouldn't go that far, he'd done a lot of terrible things, but he didn't want to keep doing them so maybe that was good enough.  
      They did seem to accept him though, and Cisco didn't mind when he named himself Captain Cold, apparently Cisco always came up with the code names. He was the one who had named the Weather Wizards, Clyde and Mark Mardon in the first place.  
      “So, wait, you're saying that you met the Weather Wizards when you were a kid? They just got their powers eight months ago.”  
      “No, it was just one man, but he said that he came back from the future to kill me.” Len explained.  
      “You mean like the Terminator? So you're John Connor to the Mardon brothers Skynet?”  
      “I guess so? He didn't say why he wanted to kill me.” Len said.  
      “Okay, we've all seen a lot of impossible things since the accelerator explosion but time travel? I can't believe that.” Eddie said.  
      “No, actually I think it makes sense.” Ronnie said, despite the skeptical look Martin gave him. “Ever since I met Caitlin the day she started working at STAR Labs I've been afraid of her, and since she got her powers I've known why. When I was a kid a woman named Killer Frost tried to kill me too and she looked exactly like Caitlin does now.”  
      “So does that mean that a bunch of villains from our future went back in time to kill us when we were kids? How come no one tried to kill me? I'm on this team too!” Cisco complained.  
***  
      Len had been living in STAR Labs ever since he woke up. He didn't have an actual home to go back to, even if he knew where his father was holed up he wouldn't want to go back to that anyway, but Cyborg and a few others also lived in the Lab, since their abilities or appearance made it difficult to be around people. He had started helping with anything that needed doing really, there was only so much testing and practicing with his abilities before he needed a break or he would go crazy. Cisco had managed to make some clothing that wouldn't freeze and become so brittle it shattered when he tried to move, though he mostly liked to stick to making their hero costumes so Len ended up wearing one of the blue parkas most of the time even when he wasn't out looking for Killer Frost.  
      Helping take care of the other coma patients was odd, Cisco had named every room after the strange anomalies that were caused by the patient's abilities; the Ice Room, Lightning Room, Rainbow Room, Dark Room. Cisco was a bit too into this whole hero/villain thing. Len liked being in the Lightning Room though, sometimes it made him feel warmer without the burning sensation that another person's touch elicited.  
      “You know, I think that your ability has an affect on theirs.” Cisco said. “When you're in the room it gets colder, and it seems to slow down not just their heart rate but everything else too.”  
      “It doesn't seem to be an averse reaction but we should monitor-” Dr. Wells stopped speaking as Barry's heart rate suddenly sped up to a point that was apparently too fast.  
      “Is he having a seizure? I think he's having a seizure!” Cisco shouted, jumping forward to try to grab Barry's flailing arm.  
      “Cold, help Vibe hold him down, who knows what damage he could do to himself moving that fast.” Wells said as he started checking the machines connected to Barry.  
      Len came over and held Barry's other arm, trying not to start freezing it, though if he froze the man to the bed it might stop him from breaking anything. Suddenly the man gasped and settled back on the bed, eyes snapping open and looking around at everything rapidly. He looked confused, and he should, but his gaze landed on Len and paused. Barry stilled, staring at his face and suddenly he had a huge smile on his face.  
      Len stared right back at him. He knew that smile, he should have put it together before now, the patients in the Lightning Room moved fast. Barry was the Flash, the man who had saved him when he was a kid. He was now faced with that same smile he had fantasized about for years, childish hero worship that had transformed into desire as he got older. Fantasies about what he could do to earn that smile all for himself.  
***  
      Barry felt like his entire body was on fire. He was struggling against something, he knew that, but he couldn't seem to open his eyes. He felt something cool against his arm, something that seemed to soothe the fire and he managed to relax, finally prying open his eyes. He didn't know where to look at first, he seemed to be in some kind of hospital room, a strange one. There were people on either side of him, but the one on his left was wearing a blue coat. The hood was up over his head but Barry could see inside, could see his ice blue eyes.  
      He could feel a huge smile on his face as he stared up at the ice man that had saved his life so many years ago. _Was this really happening? The man that he had been fantasizing about for half his life was really here with him right now?_ He couldn't help it, his mind was racing and his heart beating too fast, he reached up and pulled the man down, smashing their lips together brutally. Their teeth clicked against each other and the man fell over him, but the kiss kept going, becoming a real and gentler kiss. The man's hands held his shoulders, one coming up to touch his face. The man's skin was cold, but it felt like it was getting warmer the longer the kiss went on, until suddenly the man jerked away from him. They both were breathing heavily and staring at one another, and Barry finally noticed the other two men in the room.  
      “So have you two met before or...” One of them asked awkwardly.  
      “Mr. Allen, my name is Harrison Wells, and you have been in a coma for nine months now. Can you tell me how you're feeling at the moment?” Dr. Wells asked, completely sidestepping the awkwardness of the moment.  
     “Uh...confused mostly. Wait, nine months? What happened, why was I in a coma?” Barry asked, sitting up quickly.  
      “The particle accelerator here at STAR Labs was damaged, there was an accident that hurt a lot of people all over Central City. You aren't the only one which is why we have been treating you here in the lab.” Dr. Wells answered him. He took a blood sample while they were talking and Barry was too confused to object.  
      “This is STAR Labs? I'm in STAR Labs right now? Wait, Iris, is she okay?”  
      “She's fine, she visits all the time, she came by this morning. We'll give her a call as soon as we know you're okay.” The other man reassured. “I'm Cisco by the way, and your new boyfriend is Leonard.” Cisco continued, teasingly.  
      Barry peered around Dr. Wells to look at the man, Leonard, in the blue coat. He really did look exactly like the man that had saved him all those years ago. _Was it even possible for it to be the same man though?_  
      “I'm sorry about that Leonard, you ah, reminded me of someone.” He said, feeling his face heating up. The heart monitor he was still attached to started beeping rapidly.  
      “Hah, not a problem Barry, but just who exactly do I remind you of?” Leonard asked, feeling the corner of his mouth twist up. He hadn't done a lot of smiling but he felt like doing so now.  
      “Yeah, I don't know a lot of people like Captain Cold. He's pretty one of a kind.” Cisco said.  
      “Captain Cold?” Barry had no idea what that was supposed to mean, but Leonard stepped up close to him again and reached out a hand towards the rail on the side of his bed. He watched as frost started to cover the rail, turning to a thick coat of ice over the metal bars.  
      “I make things cold. I make everything cold.”  
      “You don't make me cold.” Barry said, staring up into his eyes. He didn't notice Cisco rushing out of the room after Dr. Wells.  
      “Actually I think you make me warmer too.”  
      “Leonard-”  
      “Call me Len, Barry.” Len said, leaning over him again, bringing their lips just inches apart.  
      “Len, when I was a kid a man just like you saved my life. I've been in love with him ever since.” Barry admitted, to answer Len's earlier question.  
      Len smiled. “Someone just like you saved my life too Barry. His name was Flash and he had the same smile you do. I've been in love with that smile all my life.”  
      Barry sighed and leaned forward, pressing his lips to Len's softly, but Len deepened the kiss right away. His tongue was cold at first but it, and the rest of Len, warmed up the longer they kissed. Len was half on the bed now, Barry's hands sliding in under the coat and around to his back, holding him tight and close-  
       “Okay, that is not what you want to see the second you wake up in a hospital bed.” A female voice behind them said, shattering the moment.  
       Barry gasped, whipping his head around so fast that somehow he and Len fell out of the bed, on the opposite side Len had been standing on. He landed on Len's chest and the man scooped him up with one arm, pulling him along as he stood up.  
      “How did you do that? That was really fast.” The teenager said.  
      “Barry is really fast.” Len said, helping him back into the bed. Suddenly the door burst open and Dr. Wells came rushing back in.  
***  
      It had been a month since Barry had woken up. He'd joined the team, the STARS, Cisco said the name was a work in progress. Cisco had also made suits for both Barry and Jesse, but Dr. Wells insisted that Jesse wasn't joining the team and Joe agreed that she was still a kid and shouldn't be fighting criminals. Unfortunately there were more metahuman criminals than heroes, and while Captain Cold was tracking Killer Frost in Coast City, Cyborg and Firestorm were fighting the Weather Wizards and Pied Piper was being restrained by Vibe back at STAR Labs after being hit with the recently awakened Prism's ability to control emotions. Apparently Piper really wanted to blow up his parent's mansion right now. Which meant that when Flash was affected by Prism too the only one who could actually stop him from attacking his friends was Jesse, who could match his speed.  
      The police were trying to sort out the people who had been fighting in the bank to distract from Prism's robbery, and the press had followed the heroes and now pointed cameras at the red and yellow blurs that circled each other outside the bank. Every so often one of the speedsters would tumble across the road as the other managed to trip or throw them, but they always got right back up again and the reporters were treating it like a show at this point, wondering who the new speedster was.  
      Suddenly a white van with the STAR Labs logo on the side sped through the crowd, swerving to a stop as close to the speedsters as possible. The side doors swung open and Detective West jumped out of the passenger seat.  
      “Jesse, quick! Grab the Flash, make him look into the lights!” West shouted at the speedsters.  
      Suddenly the cameras caught the smaller speedster struggling to hold the Flash in a headlock in front of the huge panel of flashing lights.  
***  
      “Jesse Quick, the new speedster is seen here helping to cure the Flash of an affect of another metahuman's ability. Prism, who can control emotions reportedly influenced the Flash...”  
      “Can you believe that! Leonard, Barry and now Jesse! When was the last time I got to name a hero. It's always villains now.” Cisco whined as the news broadcast continued.  
      “You didn't pick my name either, and Firestorm's name is because of Professor Stein's Firestorm Matrix.” Hartley said.  
      “What are you complaining about? I'm the one they went ahead and named. Joe was just yelling at me, that wasn't supposed to be a name!”  
      “You don't need a name Jesse, you're not doing this again anytime soon.” Dr. Wells said as Jessie sped out of the room in a huff.  
***  
      “Do you think they'll be able to help Caitlin?”  
      “I don't know, Barry. I'm just glad I finally managed to catch her. I think everyone will be happy as long as they can keep her from killing anyone.” Len said.  
      They were back in Barry's apartment, he'd felt like he needed more space now that he spent so much time with his sort-of boyfriend who could freeze everything in a room in seconds. His time was usually split between work as a CSI and helping out with the STARS but he and Len usually managed to get together a few times a week. Everyone else at STAR Labs considered them to be boyfriends, but sometimes that didn't seem like the right definition to Barry. He still had trouble sometimes, taking a step back and remembering that this was someone he needed to get to know, someone who wasn't the same hero he'd built up in his mind from one memory in his childhood. Sometimes Len seemed to have the same problem, but they both really wanted it to work out. The problem was that anything more than a brief kiss made both of their abilities go out of control.  
      “You know Len, sometimes you do make me cold.” Barry said.  
      “I don't mean to.” Len said, a sad look crossing his face.  
      “I don't mind, actually, I think it's your way of flirting.” Barry teased.  
      Len actually started blushing, it was the first time Barry had seen him blush, and the temperature dropped a little more around Barry as frost dusted the counter he was leaning on.  
      “See, this is totally you flirting with me right now.” Barry said with a huge grin as his breath fogged the air.  
      Len leaned over the counter that was between them and kissed Barry. “I don't know if I can control it. If we do more...I don't want to hurt you Barry.” He said after pulling away.  
      Barry was fast. Everything about him now was fast, and he understood why they should be careful, but you can't just kiss a guy, be the perfect boyfriend, and not expect the guy to put out. Or maybe that was just Barry, and his really fast hormones. Either way he was really in the mood right now, and Len being so sweet and caring with him when everyone else thought he was cold as ice was not turning him off.  
      So he sped around the counter, half dragging, half carrying Len to his bedroom and pulling him down on top of him on the bed. Len needed a minute to get his bearings, but he stared down at Barry who was breathing hard already, kicking off his shoes and unbuckling his pants.  
      “Barry, we shouldn't-”  
      “With my speed, do you have any idea how often I have to get off?” Barry panted, sliding his pants and boxers down and lifting his hips up to press against the front of Len's jeans. “I have to, every day, sometimes three times in a row or I'm still ready to go.” Barry slid one hand up under Len's shirt so that he could feel the man's chest as his other hand touched himself.  
      Len stared at him a moment longer, but Barry could see in his wide lust filled eyes, the desire that Len felt for him. Then Len threw his coat off his shoulders, tossing the sweater off next and leaving Barry long enough to get rid of his pants and shoes too. Barry tossed his own shirt aside and waited, legs spread open when Len climbed back into the bed. He was still cold, but like every time they had kissed so far Len was getting warmer the longer they touched. The room around them was chilly but Barry was so hot he was nearly sweating, and feeling the cool skin of Len's sides as he moved so slowly up between Bary's legs was actually a relief.  
      “So, three times? Do you think that's the same when you have someone else's hands on you?” Len said with a smirk.  
      “We should find out. Right now.” Barry panted.  
      Len chuckled, trailing kisses down Barry's stomach, licking a cold stripe down Barry's length that made him shiver with pleasure instead of chills. Len's mouth closed over him, taking him deep and Barry locked his muscles tight to stop from moving at superspeed. He held as still as possible while Len's tongue teased him, gasping and panting and making sounds that would be embarrassing if he was paying attention to them. Finally he couldn't help it, he thrust up quickly and Len grabbed his hips to hold him still, but Barry was too close now and when Len hummed and swirled his tongue around Barry he came.  
      Barry's legs shook as Len slid up his body, until they were chest to chest and nose to nose and pressing every inch of their skin together. Barry was already hard again, his dick trapped between their bodies, the same as Len's own. He kissed Len hard as he started to move, the friction between them enough to tease Len and bring Barry close again now that he was over sensitized. Barry ran his hands over Len's back, nails digging in as he came again between them, breaking the kiss to shout and then gasp in a deeper breath.  
      He fell back to the mattress limply, shaking with how sensitive his skin now was against everything; the bed sheets, Len's body, Len's hands. Len's hands slid up and down his chest as Barry caught his breath. Little shocks of static from his speed were sparking on Len's fingers as they trailed over his skin and Barry was dimly aware of ice crackling somewhere, but it was hard to focus on that with how badly he needed Len inside him right now.  
      “Len.” Barry gasped, wrapping his legs around the other man's waist. “Please.”  
      Len's skin was warmer than Barry had ever felt it. It might almost be approaching the human normal, so the fingers that entered him first weren't uncomfortable, but Barry needed Len to hurry. He was so sensitive already that he could come again just from this. Len's fingers found that spot and Barry's whole body shook, vibrating uncontrollably.  
      “God Barry. You should have said you can vibrate like this.”  
      “Can't control it. Just happens sometimes.” Barry gasped as Len's fingers worked against that spot again and again until he came a third time.  
***  
      Barry's body was still twitching, and there were actually visible sparks of electricity on his skin, but he was relaxed enough now. Len pulled Barry's leg up against his hip and slowly eased himself into Barry's heat. His own skin was warmer now but it was like being inside some kind of wonderful furnace and he had a hard time going slow. Barry moaned as he slid his entire length in deep, his hands shaking nearly to the point of vibrating as he reached for Len's shoulders. Len let Barry pull him down for a kiss and felt Barry hardening again. Once he'd seen that what Barry had said about getting off more than once was true he had wondered if he could go for more than three and it looked like he was about to.  
      Breaking the kiss Len started moving, he had waited so long that he probably wouldn't last much longer than Barry this time. The sounds Barry made were intoxicating, his hands fell down to fist in the sheets as Len found that wonderfully sensitive spot and hit it with every thrust until Barry was vibrating again. It was difficult to keep track after the vibrating started, both of them moving frantically and the way that movement felt completely surrounding Len was something that he would never be able to describe. Suddenly Barry was coming again and the tightening of the vibrating muscles around him pushed Len over the edge with him.  
***  
      “Well, I think we figured that out.”  
      “Don't think you're going to freeze me any more do you?” Barry said with a laugh. Len's chest was pressed up against his back, one arm under Barry's head and the other draped over his waist. It had taken them a while to shift like that, after Barry came a _fourth_ time. He was pleasantly exhausted afterwards, he was still too sensitive and his skin kept throwing off lazy sparks here and there when Len touched him but Len insisted that they didn't hurt.  
      “Just everything else apparently.” Len said, waving a hand at the room beyond them. Barry raised his head from where it was pillowed on Len's arm and looked around. His entire bedroom, starting just a foot from the edges of the bed, was covered in an inch of ice and frost. The bed didn't have a single speck of ice on it, the cold starting beyond where they lay.  
      “Is it on the ceiling too?” Barry said in surprise, noticing the wide circle clear of ice just above the bed.  
      “Apparently. Are you cold?” Len asked, brushing his nose against Barry's ear.  
      “No.” Barry was a little surprised by that actually. Len was still warmer than his usual, but with how much ice was in the room it should be colder. “Maybe it's not just cold. Maybe you're subconsciously _not_ lowering the temperature near us, keeping us warmer on purpose?”  
      “You should work at STAR Labs. You always have a theory about everything.”  
      “Mmm... I'll fill out an application tomorrow.” Barry said, drifting off to sleep.  
***  
      “I love you, Flash.” Captain Cold said, holding tighter to his sleeping lover.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Earth 528 doesn't exist, I picked a random number that I didn't see as already in use from this list here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_DC_Multiverse_worlds  
> This is also a little bit based on the Exiles comics from Marvel, the number of heroes on the team being 6, Rip Hunter being the Timebroker and Gideon/Waverider being the Tallus. The Crystal Prison is the Crystal Palace. I didn't put that in the tags because it's more like I just didn't want so many characters on the team, or for Rip to leave the ship and it was really just me needing to find loopholes to set up the story the way I wanted to...not an actual crossover type thing...  
> I decided that Jesse would be a teenager so she could use the Kid Flash costume and also because everyone in the Flash tv series seems to be around the same age.


	2. Earth 877

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brief universe description: Justice League: The Savage Time + Justice League: Starcrossed + Men In Black 3  
> Warning? Some deaths happen, I don't know what you might think is too graphic or whatever... so just to let you know, and this is maybe a spoiler? but Hro hits Hawkgirl in a scene that I guess could seem like an abusive relationship? so done with warning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the 2 of you who subscribed to LiE and anyone else who was watching it, I assume it was because you were hoping for more Earth 528, well this is Earth 877, but don't despair! there will be more Earth 528! An extended version (multi chapter) is being (re-)written with many new ideas, and the first chapter will be posted in a few days! It will be Work 2 in the Legends in Exile SERIES!  
> Well, now that this one chapter story has gotten longer and more planned out, you get a glossary! Hopefully I explained everything well enough in the story itself, but if I didn't, consult the glossary! (it's short, Chapter 2 is right below the glossary)

**Glossary** :  
     **Vanishing Point** : a place outside the Multiverse. At the edge of the Multiverse there is an area of 'space' that's just multicolored space dust floating around not doing much.  
     **Panoptichron** : This was another name for the Crystal Palace from Marvel's Exiles comics, for this story the Panoptichron is a 'building' inside the Vanishing Point, it has a bit of a 'castle in the sky' thing going on.  
     **Crystal Prison** : this is an endless pink corridor with walls that are made of something that can imprison people / metahumans / time travelers.  
     **Oculus** : The control room inside the Panoptichron from which the Time Master and Time Brokers watch over all of the realities / universes / timelines in the multiverse.  
     **Panoptichron Time** : A system of measuring time in the Panoptichron and all places within the Panoptichron that differs from other systems due to the Panoptichron being outside of time. The timelines of alternate realities pass at different speeds and the Oculus can 'watch' a whole timeline unfold 'as it is happening' so the Waverider could be traveling for days and it's only been an 'hour' in the Panoptichron, so a 'cycle' is a work shift, and it is by these shifts that the passage of time is measured.  
     **Time Bandits** : Time travelers who travel for personal gain, basically anyone that makes a mess of a timeline / universe that the Time Brokers have to clean up. So if you are a time traveler and they don't notice you, you aren't a Time Bandit, if they have reason to notice you, you are.  
     **Time Broker** : A person who works in the Panoptichron or with a team on a time / space traveling ship to keep alternate universes from being destroyed by time travelers who don't know what they're doing.  
     **Time Master** : The head Time Broker.  
     **Time Refugees** : Time travelers who cannot travel back to their own time for some reason, or who traveled away from their time to escape something... either way they are seeking refuge in a time not their own.  
***  
Chapter 2: Earth 877  
***  
     When Time Broker Declan didn't report in after his shift ended his replacement for the watch station in the nook between the third and fourth corridors off the seventh arm of the Oculus was instructed to simply report to that station and see what was keeping Declan from reporting in. Eve Baxter traveled down the seventh arm and turned into the third corridor to approach the entryway to the watch station tucked into the middle of the hall across from where corridor two met corridor three and slowed her steps. Something was off, and there was a scent in the air, a stench that she couldn't immediately identify because it had no context in this area of the Panoptichron.  
     Eve pondered the smell as she walked along, closer to the wall and felt herself reaching for her gun in reflex. She took a shallow breath trying to avoid the smell as she stepped around the corner and recoiled from the sight of Declan's half burned and half frozen body left abandoned in the entryway to the watch station. Trying to calm her racing pulse Eve felt her training kick in as she crouched closer to observe the body after scanning the area for the perpetrators.  
     “Weather Wizard! Stop toying with the device and stand still while it scans you!” The shout wasn't loud but Eve heard it come from the watch station in front of her and realized that whoever had just killed her fellow Time Broker must be trying to leave the Panoptichron for one of the Earths they watched over from the Oculus.  
     Eve immediately straitened and ducked through the entrance to the watch station, slamming one hand against the emergency alarm to alert the Oculus and drawing her gun on what she realized were three metahumans. She didn't recognize any of them on sight but then her job wasn't to travel the multiverse with assorted heroes and villains to reconstruct damaged timelines so she had never bothered to memorize the thousands of super powered humans, and humanoid aliens, that some of her fellow Time Brokers poured over during training. Their identities were of little consequence however, she only needed to take them down. Firing at the closest enemy, a woman who seemed unprepared to launch a counterattack from where she leaned against a console, Eve barely managed to evade when the man in the yellow suit appeared before her in the blink of an eye. Speedsters, from what she heard they were always a bitch to fight.  
     Eve aimed at the portal generator through which the metahumans could escape but the man in yellow shoved her away, distorting her aim and instead of knocking the generator offline one of its supports cracked and the whole thing listed to one side. The generator tilted, inconveniently, even more towards the escapees. Ducking away from the man she was blown against the wall by a gust of wind as the third member of the band crossed the room, controlling the air around them and funneling it away from her she gasped for air as she fired recklessly at the man, managing to land a glancing blow that sent the air the man was controlling barreling across the room and in the way of his partners who had moved to the console that controlled the portal. The man stumbled nearer to his companions as she climbed back to her feet and hearing the portal generator powering up Eve aimed once again for the device, if she could keep them trapped here long enough for reinforcements to arrive their Earth would survive none the wiser even if she didn't make it. The man who controlled the wind jumped between her and the generator and raised a hand, sending electricity sparking across the room as she fired at the generator. The two forces collided and instead of knocking the generator offline as she'd intended the blast sent the man who was now generating electricity reeling backwards into the console which exploded with sparks and there was a quickly cut off scream from the man as he was fried in the overload. The man in yellow and the woman had been standing too close by and from the force of the blast they were thrown through the half-formed portal before it collapsed as the device powered down without its connection to the console and Eve cringed at her failure and aimed at the remaining meta who at least couldn't escape, though it was clear he hadn't survived his first attempt, now far more burned than Declan.  
***  
     “Captain Hunter, you have a transmission from the Oculus.” Gideon announced once Rip had sealed the door to his personal chamber. With a sigh he strolled over to the small viewscreen on one wall, if Gideon hadn't announced the message right away, because there were other members of the team present then the message must contain yet more information that the Time Brokers back at headquarters insisted be kept classified and away from the team. Activating the screen manually as he occasionally liked to do he selected the only new message.  
     Appearing on the screen was Zaman Druce, the current Time Master and leader of the Time Brokers, of which he was one. The man rarely left the Oculus, despite the endless corridors of the Panoptichron that housed not only the Oculus but the Crystal Prison as well. A message from Time Master Druce had, in Rip's personal experience, never been anything other than a dressing down over a mistake or a warning not to make said mistake in the first place. “Time Broker Hunter, this message is sent to inform you that two cycles ago by Panoptichron Time there was a breakout in the Crystal Prison. The Time Bandits your team apprehended on Earth 528 broke out of their containment and two of the three managed to escape the Panoptichron and back to the time period on Earth 528 that you removed them from. This message is also to inform you that your current mission to Earth 877 is not to be canceled, postponed or delayed for any attempt at recapturing the Bandits. Scans of the timeline from the Oculus indicate that their actions in the past will no longer disrupt the intended course of the timeline. They are to be left to their own devices and another Time Broker has been assigned to monitor them. Your interference, Captain Hunter, is not required.” The message ended abruptly, leaving Rip feeling indignant. He didn't break the rules _that_ often, he didn't need to be warned off after every little change to a timeline. If Gideon had informed him of the escape he might have sent for more information, but the same answers Time Master Druce had just given him would have been satisfying enough.  
     With a dissatisfied grunt he flopped down on his bunk and indicated that Gideon should shut down the viewscreen. He wasn't a child, he could clearly see that their next mission on Earth 877 was far more important than some Time Refugees that weren't going to affect things one way or another in the grand scheme of things. The mission briefing would come tomorrow, after their teammate exchange, but with one mission following the other so closely this time his team deserved a night of rest before jumping into an intergalactic war. He had given the order just minutes ago after all.  
***  
***  
Minutes Ago  
     “I still don't like the idea of that Crystal Prison place. We have a time traveling spaceship right here, why can't we just take them to the authorities in their own time and place?” Barry questioned again.  
     “Honestly Flash, I'm not one to go along with illegal prisons either but if the Time Bandits are just going to do exactly the same thing and destroy an entire universe we should let the people who know how to handle them figure out how to send them home without creating some sort of infinite loop of a time paradox.” Leonard said.  
     “Who cares? We did our job now tell us Rip, which one of us gets to go home?” Mick asked as their leader swept past them to the center of the room.  
     “I'm afraid, Mr. Rory that you have a longer wait ahead of you, Mr. Snart however may now return to Earth 218.” There were groans and sighs from around the room as the reluctant, if compatible, teammates heard Rip's announcement. A Heatwave was always less tolerable without a Captain Cold to keep him in line.  
     “So do you know who's joining us already then? Is our next mission already set?” Kendra asked.  
     “Yes there will be a mission briefing in the morning after Mr. Snart returns to his Earth. Our next mission is going to be more involved than a half hour fight so I suggest you all get a good night's rest and be prepared to memorize your part of the mission.” Captain Hunter explained.  
***  
***  
The Next Day  
     Dropping off Leonard back on Earth 218 didn't take long, as apparently Gideon had flown the Waverider there on autopilot while they were all sleeping. Gathering in the main room of the Waverider the rest of the team waited as Captain Hunter set course to the next Earth where they assumed they would pick up their next teammate.  
     “Unfortunately time is of the essence, Earth 877 is rather far from our current location and even farther from our new teammate's Earth 8003. So we will be heading directly for Earth 877 and another Time Broker will meet us closer to our destination with the newest member of our team, Killer Frost, also known as Caitlin Snow. Killer Frost is also being briefed separately on her part in this mission.”  
     “What's the big hurry? The Waverider can travel to any point in the timeline, do we have to get there immediately?” Ronnie asked.  
     “Ah, yes well it's always best to be prompt, and some timelines unravel faster than others. We have a limited window on which points in time we can actually travel to on Earth 877 and our best option is still going to leave us with a rather complicated mission.”  
     “Alright so what is it then?” Mick asked bluntly.  
     “Very well, the relevant facts you need to know about the original timeline of Earth 877 are these: a group of heroes known as the Justice League were the self appointed defenders of Earth in the face of extraterrestrial threats. Six of the seven founding members of the team were killed on a mission off world, and the remaining member known as Batman then went on to build a new team who's first major success was to fight off an invasion force from the planet Thanagar.” As Rip spoke an image appeared above the table, projected by Gideon, of a lineup of humanoid aliens with large brown and grey feathered wings.  
     “Wait, you mean there's a whole alien species that have wings like I do?” Kendra asked as she stepped closer to the projection.  
     “Yes, the Thanagarians of planet Thanagar, orbiting the star Polaris. Your counterpart in this reality is a Lieutenant of the Thanagarian army who was sent as an ambassador to Earth.” Gideon explained promptly. Another image was projected of a woman who looked similar to Kendra but who had red hair and her hawk wings draped at rest behind her.  
     “The Justice League? Gideon who are they?” Barry asked the artificial intelligence as Kendra just stared at the aliens.  
     “Earth 877's version of the Justice League consisted of Batman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, Martian Manhunter, Superman and Wonder Woman, surviving member Batman formed a new team of Aquaman, Artemis, Dr. Fate, Green Lantern, Impulse and Supergirl.” Pictures of each hero were displayed above the hologram table they were gathered around as Gideon named them.  
     “Hey! How come there are two speedsters in this Justice League and neither of them are me?” Barry whined.  
     “Barry Allen retired as the first Flash, his nephew and then his grandson were members of the Justice League.” Gideon explained.  
     “So what's the problem then, who's the Time Bandit we're after?” Barry asked.  
     “Well it seems that at the same time the original Justice League were killed in 2002 an immortal man named Vandal Savage discovered a black hole which he harnessed to send technology and information on historical events to his younger self in an earlier period of history. He then used this information to take the place of the leader of a regime most commonly referred to across the multiverse as the National Socialist German Worker's Party.”  
     “Nazis. I hate Nazis.” Mick commented.  
     Glancing aside at Mick's interruption Rip continued. “Yes, well, as the leader of the most technologically advanced nation Savage was able to take over the world. Unfortunately this alteration to the natural timeline has led to all metahumans, anyone with powers, being detained and evaluated. If they are deemed loyal to the regime then they are convinced to work for an elite guard force, if their loyalty cannot be trusted they are imprisoned and experimented on or killed if that is not an option. Because of most of its members being killed or never revealing themselves to the world in the first place the Justice League never formed and so a replacement team will never exist to discover the Thanagarians treachery and fight off their invading force, and the planet Earth itself will be destroyed.”  
     “Earth will be destroyed? The entire planet?” Dr. Stein was the most visibly shocked of the team though they were all surprised that Rip explained it all as calmly as if it happened every day. Then again preventing the destruction of an entire universe on a semi-daily basis was even bigger than stopping one planet from being destroyed, even if it was their planet.  
     “Yes, if we don't stop it. Which is why some of you will be going undercover in the place of your counterparts to sabotage the efforts of both the Thanagarians and Savage. Kendra will be taking the place of her counterpart, Shayera Hol, to try to warn Savage of the Thanagarian threat and undermine the feigned alliance without revealing our own presence. Mick, Caitlin, Ronnie and Professor Stein will replace Heatwave, Killer Frost and Deathstorm in the ranks of Savage's Elite Guard.”  
     “Then what am I supposed to do?” Barry asked.  
     “There are rumors on Earth 877 that a small alien spacecraft crash landed and was taken into custody by the Elite Guard. This craft was piloted by the Green Lantern Abin Sur who was killed during the crash. He was bringing to Earth a device called the ArcNet, which would create a force field around the entire planet Earth that would repel the Thanagarian invasion force. That device is now missing, but there is a man who can find it, if you can find him. So your mission, Flash, is to find Hal Jordan. Only he can find, place and activate the ArcNet. You will also have to avoid notice for your speed, or you will be arrested and face interrogation.” Captain Hunter told him. “So, in the time before we arrive in range of Earth 877 there is a lot you are each going to need to study and practice, as well as some cosmetic changes some of you will need to become accustomed to. I suggest you each make good use of your time before we arrive, the fate of a planet is at stake.”  
***  
     Just before they arrived at Earth 877 the team was regathered to meet Killer Frost, who stepped into the loading bay of the Waverider with an air of disinterested determination. Barry was shocked by how similar and yet different she looked to the Dr. Snow he'd met briefly on his own Earth 443. Barry stepped forward to introduce himself along with the others, though this Caitlin didn't seem to care what their real names were, only who they were as heroes.  
     “You're Firestorm? I don't think so. Madison Payne is Firestorm.” Caitlin said when Ronnie and Martin introduced themselves. The look on Ronnie's face was scandalized, and Barry realized that like on his own Earth perhaps this Ronnie Raymond was married to Caitlin Snow, but maybe on Ronnie's Earth Caitlin wasn't a metahuman like she was on his own.  
     “A woman? Really? Fascinating. On our Earth we have only found two others who were compatible with the Firestorm Matrix and both were men. Do you know who her partner in the Firestorm Matrix is? As soon as I get back to my Earth I'm going to need to do a study...” Martin began mumbling to himself as he went in search of paper to jot down a few notes.  
     “Whatever, so when exactly do we get to start killing Nazis and alien birds?” Killer Frost sneered at the other heroes contemptuously.  
     “Ah, well if you've studied your part of the mission then that would be never. If all goes well we should be able to leave before the Thanagarian invasion force even reaches Earth.” Rip said in answer to her savagery.  
     Kendra looked as shocked by Killer Frost's manner as she had at the Thanagarians physical similarities to her own metahuman ability. Barry was surprised to see her with her hair dyed red and green contact lenses, but realized that she must be getting used to them while still here on the Waverider since she would need them to impersonate her other self. He was glad his mission was just to remain unnoticed and look for this Hal Jordan person, he didn't think he could act like a version of himself who _agreed_ with everything that was happening on this Earth.  
     They had another few hours before they would have to begin their individual missions, for which they would mostly remain out of contact with each other to avoid notice. Rip insisted on going over each part of the plan together, making sure they had each spent their time memorizing their roles by heart. By the time Gideon announced that their counterparts were in the locations they had marked as the easiest time to take their place they had been through the entire plan twice.  
     “I cannot stress enough that you do not want to blow your cover. If you are discovered to not be who you say you are you will be taken for interrogation in STAR Laboratories, and this is not the Earth we want learning of the existence of the Time Brokers.” Rip said, giving them one last warning before sending them to the surface in a customary flash of pink light.  
***  
     Kendra's counterpart, Shayera, was in a courtyard within the city hall Vandal Savage was currently running his planet from in the city that most of them would barely have recognized as Metropolis on their own worlds. The space was utilitarian, more of an extra wide hallway than a garden. As soon as the pink flash faded Kendra lept for the other woman who, though startled, was by no means unprepared for a fight. Kendra was overpowered quickly in trying to avoid a blow from the woman's mace and could only serve as a distraction while Barry sped behind the Thanagarian and injected her with a sedative. Shayera didn't go down right away, instead twisting and swinging the mace at Barry's head which he barely realized he would need to duck in his surprise at her remaining upright. Eventually though she did fall and Barry picked up the mace to pass to Kendra, who took a deep breath and willed her wings to appear. It would be an extraordinary effort to keep them out in view for hours, possibly days, at a time and not just when she needed to fly but she'd been practicing nearly all the time since she'd begun studying for this mission and she had to hope she'd be up to the task.  
     Kendra already had a uniform to match the Thanagarian's military dress, but Barry removed and passed her Shayera's golden helm as well before binding the woman's arms and wings and with difficulty hefting her over one shoulder.  
     “You've got this! Everything will be fine.” He said with an encouraging grin before dashing off who knows where to hide the real Lieutenant Shayera Hol.  
     Kendra nodded to herself and put on the mask, feeling better with a barrier in place between herself and those she would soon be lying to, and strode from the courtyard. She knew from the schedule Gideon had given her to memorize that Lieutenant Hol had a meeting with Vandal Savage in just a few minutes where he planned to show her around some areas of his command center in an effort to impress the alien soldier with Earth's military prowess and Kendra planned to drop hints here and there, to Savage and others, on just how much more advanced Thanagarian technology was. If they began to feel threatened they would be more confrontational on their first meeting with Commander Hro Talak, who was quick to anger himself. A quick escalation in hostility could reveal the falseness of the Thanagarian's proposed alliance hopefully without too much more interference from her and as long as Savage's forces were prepared to fight her mission would be a success.  
***  
     The Mick Rory of Earth 877 was easy to buy off, his job wasn't enviable even if he was able to set fires almost daily. The man was more than happy to take some time off and remain hidden while Mick took his place as a member of one of the teams who would send warnings to rebels and anyone else who spoke out against the regime. The uniform was a pain in the ass and he'd never liked taking orders, unless they were from Captain Cold which was okay for some reason he'd never really bothered to understand, but the fires were beautiful. He nearly forgot what he was here to do in the first place as he watched a huge old mansion burn for hours.  
     The acquisitions room was only accessible to the fire teams when they had something to bring in, pillaged from a house before they'd burned it down usually. Mick slipped out of the main room where his coworkers were signing in what they had removed from the mansion earlier that day and made his way along the corridors he'd memorized back on the Waverider. The room he was looking for was supposed to hold the spaceship that the Green Lantern had crash landed in and he was supposed to make sure that neither a ring nor a lantern were anywhere in the ship, the room or the building.  
     Finding the room the ship was held in Mick looked around and saw a number of green items in glass cases along the far wall, a gauntlet, what looked like a piece of the ship, a ring and a battered lantern. So that was bad luck, that Hal Jordan guy the Flash was supposed to be looking for didn't have any powers. Quite suddenly Mick discovered that he was not the only one trespassing where he shouldn't be, and of all people he wasn't expecting to find Lisa Snart ripping pieces out of an alien spacecraft. She wasn't in any attire he'd seen before as a uniform, just more subdued and worn clothes than what the Lisa he knew would ever wear, so he assumed she had broken in somehow. He knocked his heat gun against a panel of the ship and she jumped, turning on him in surprise.  
     “What the hell are you doing in here Mick?” She demanded.  
     “Trust me Lisa, you want to get out of here quick.” Mick growled. He didn't like her chances against the guards he'd passed just to get here himself.  
     Lisa's expression hardened in fury as he spoke. “Mick you traitor, after what you did to my brother just so you could set a few more fires! He looked out for you! Always kept you out of trouble and the first time he needed your help you sold him out! Did you like watching him burn? Are you proud of yourself for trading your partner for a higher rank and a chance to burn down desperate people's homes? I'll never trust you!” She snarled.  
     Mick was horrified by the picture Lisa's rant painted of him in this world. _Would he really sell out Leonard Snart to a bunch of Nazis?_ Now he was worrying about how easy it had been to bribe his counterpart, if the man was likely to-  
     He shoved Lisa back down into the ship and grabbed a piece she had torn out of it as he stepped away. He was just in time as his commander, Eddie Thawne, stormed into the room with half a dozen other guards. Mick made a show of dropping the piece of spaceship guiltily and waiting nervously for his punishment.  
     “Mick Rory, I was shocked when I was told that you were an imposter. You've always been loyal to the Regime, but I've never seen you break into a secured area you don't have clearance for either.” Thawne said as the guards moved to surround him.  
     “I don't know what you're talking about, who am I impersonating?” Mick bluffed.  
     “Yourself apparently, or so the Mick Rory we have in interrogation claims.” Thawne answered him.  
     _Damn Nazi Heatwave!_ Bastard sold him out, Mick should have known he'd been too easy to bribe. Cold would have spotted it the second the man had agreed. Before the guards could apprehend him the alien ship behind him gave out a loud whirring sound and lurched across the floor, scattering the guards and Mick who narrowly dived out of its way.  
     “Get in you idiot!” Lisa shouted as more lights came on in the ship and Mick jumped in through a hole that had been blasted in whatever passed for glass in alien spacecrafts. Weapons fired all around them as Thawne shouted and the ship crashed through one wall after another.  
     “Not that you aren't the best getaway driver I've ever had but since when do you know how to fly alien ships?” Mick asked as they landed at the edge of a city he wasn't entirely sure was the same one they'd started out in.  
     Lisa glanced at him with raised eyebrows. “I can drive anything, but being an imposter I suppose you don't know anything about me.” She jumped from the ship as dozens of men and women in some kind of black and grey armored suits converged on the ship. Mick recognized them as members of the resistance movement Gideon had told them was led by the 'Batman' who was supposed to have led the 'Justice League' on this earth and he realized that Lisa, and probably her brother before Mick had betrayed him, were part of the group that was fighting Vandal Savage.  
***  
     Ronnie watched as Killer Frost took out her counterpart, it was a violent fight that he wasn't comfortable with considering he had to work with this woman for the foreseeable future. He couldn't imagine his wife back home ever acting so mercilessly cruel and yet here were two women who shared her name and face eagerly trying to murder each other.  
     He had already taken down the Firestorm, or Deathstorm, native to Earth 877. A counterpart to himself who preferred going by Ronald and a man named Henry Hewitt. According to Gideon, once they had merged the first time Ronald had never allowed the other man to leave the Firestorm Matrix, and no one but Ronald and a few superior officers were even aware that there was another man or who he was. The two men were passed out in the grass next to him in the woods just outside the town where the third team of Vandal Savage's Elite Guard were currently stationed. It wasn't far from here that Abin Sur's spaceship had crash landed and the third team had been sent to secure the area, search for anything that might have fallen or been sent from the ship as it crashed and watch for any other potential alien arrivals in the area. Apparently Killer Frost and Deathstorm had slipped away to the woods instead of finishing their patrol of the perimeter however, and it left them easier targets for an ambush.  
     The two Killer Frosts were difficult to keep track of, their powers lit up the trees around him well enough but they were nearly identical and after a few turns round the small clearing and darting in and out of the trees he wasn't quite sure which one was which anymore. Luckily he supposed, though he only felt more bitter about the prevalence of this twisted perversion of the woman he loved, the Killer Frost who emerged victorious did not attack him. She dragged her counterpart across the clearing to him and tossed her in a heap atop the men who were Deathstorm.  
     “What the Hell's going on here?” A voice cut through the trees as another man emerged onto the condemning scene. The man was the leader of the team they were supposed to infiltrate, Captain Boomerang, and Ronnie didn't think of an excuse fast enough.  
     “Just taking care of a few undesirables.” Killer Frost said, stepping back from him and the pile of downed villains.  
     “Who the Hell are you?” The Captain demanded, pulling out a pair of his signature weapons.  
     They had to do something about this, the Captain couldn't find out that they weren't who they said they were but all of the evidence was right in front of the man and he may not be one of the few who knew about Henry Hewitt but that didn't mean he wouldn't notice two Caitlin Snows and two Ronald Raymonds right in front of his face.  
     Having paused too long in answering, and suddenly getting no help from Killer Frost, Ronnie found himself under attack. Dodging the boomerangs on the first pass wasn't difficult, but they sped up on their return pass and his fire only ignited the incendiaries they contained. “I could use a little help here!” he shouted at Killer Frost as he was knocked around by the explosions from one boomerang after another that the Captain was aiming at him relentlessly.  
     “After all that work I already did? Do your own fair share _Firestorm_.” She said his name like an insult even through the smirk that curled her lips as she watched the fight.  
     “Ronald I believe Killer Frost cannot be counted on to aid us in this fight.” He heard Martin say.  
     “No kidding.” He muttered back.  
     “In which case I would suggest taking this fight farther from where we might be observed by any other members of this Elite Guard team.” Martin replied.  
     _I can barely move around this guy without setting off an explosion, he'll knock me out of the sky if I try to fly._ Ronnie thought back at the professor.  
     “We can't be discovered, or didn't you get that part of the briefing? You should wrap this up _Firestorm_.” Killer Frost called from a stand of trees deeper in the woods.  
     _Does she seriously hate us because were not this Madison Payne person she mentioned?_ Ronnie thought at Martin before another exploding boomerang went off too close to him and knocked him to the ground. He looked up, disoriented, as Captain Boomerang crossed the distance between them quickly and stood over him with another weapon raised.  
     “I'll ask you again, who are you?” The man snapped, menacing him with the weapon, clearly intending to kill him if he didn't answer satisfactorily.  
     Glancing around at Killer Frost again to see no help coming from that corner Ronnie's pulse raced as he realized he couldn't come up with any excuse Captain Boomerang would believe. Especially he realized, as Killer Frost had called him _Firestorm_ more than once within earshot of the man, and he had answered to the name when Captain Boomerang knew Ronald Raymond as Deathstorm. She'd set him up, there was only one way out of this that he could see, but if he shot a blast of fire at the Captain then every explosive device the man had on him would risk igniting and killing him.  
     “Don't do it Ronald, there has to be another way out of this! Think it through, killing a man-” Martin shouted in his head but before he could finish Captain Boomerang had apparently decided not to bother listening to what he knew would be a lie and released the next boomerang. It was pure reflex that Ronnie raised his arms and sent a jet of flame at the projectile and blew the explosion back at his would be executioner, and just as he'd feared the man was torn apart by the shrapnel of his own weapons exploding from where they were strapped all across his uniform.  
     Cowering to avoid the blast Ronnie raised his arm from over his head and looked at the remains of Captain Boomerang in horror as Killer Frost gleefully doused the flaming corpse in frost.  
***  
     Placing the captured Thanagarian in the makeshift cell he had managed to negotiate for with the rebels who lived in the underground sewer and subway system Barry forced down another twinge of regret over imprisoning someone in secret. He was doing far too much of this for his comfort, but he understood that Shayera had to be kept hidden to keep Kendra safe, and this was far better than killing her.  
     Stepping out of the cell and nodding to the guards Barry sped out of the rebels subterranean labyrinth as quickly as he could, there was no need to interact with anyone on this Earth for any more time than was absolutely necessary and he needed to begin his search for Hal Jordan. The man lived in Coast City, which Barry was familiar with on his own Earth though the street layout and buildings were somewhat different here, and was a pilot though not for the Air Force. Barry searched his home and work in a flash but Hal hadn't been to either all day, in fact not since he had seen the Green Lantern crash. Barry skidded to a halt in the woods near the crash site. He knew Killer Frost and Firestorm were supposed to be around here somewhere so he couldn't use his powers or their team would notice him and he'd have to fight.  
     Hal couldn't have stuck too close by the crash site, or the Elite Guard would have probably already captured him. He had to be somewhere though and Barry needed a place to start looking, so inspecting his last known location it was. The spaceship was supposedly shot down by an orbiting rail gun, one of many Vandal Savage had ordered to be put in orbit over the years, when the craft didn't identify itself or ask permission to land. The crash site could be seen from blocks away as a huge furrow had been torn across the ground where the spaceship had plowed across the planet's surface. Barry didn't need to get any closer to see that the area immediately surrounding the damaged ground had been evacuated and cordoned off by the Elite Guard team that should be nearby. Nervously Barry began walking a large loop around the crash site hoping to stumble on a clue.  
     As he was about to give up and wander deeper into Coast City there was a crash and a man vaulted over a pile of shattered concrete debris as he avoided chunks of shattered stone that flew through the air in the wake of Silver Banshee's screams. The man landed hard and as he rose and dashed past Barry recognized Hal Jordan from the images he'd seen of the man on the Waverider. Over the rubble Silver Banshee emerged with more of her Guard team behind her including Killer Frost and Deathstorm, Cheetah, Copperhead and Atomic Skull who fired a green blast of radiation after Hal. Barry jumped into motion and carried Hal out of range of the Elite Guard, he didn't stop running until he was halfway across the city.  
     When they came to a stop Hal yanked himself out of Barry's grip, completely unaffected by the sudden motion of their travel. Hal turned to face him and took in his uncostumed appearance. “What do you think you're doing? Who are you?” He demanded.  
     “I'm here to help you save the world, you have the ArcNet don't you?” Barry asked nervously.  
     “Look kid, I don't know what's going on, I was minding my own business when that alien crashed here and now I've got the whole Elite Guard after me. I don't have time to save the world, and I don't know what you're talking about.” Hal said, shoving Barry back and striding past.  
     “Hal!” Barry called and fell in step with the man. “Look I know that you were at the crash site, and I know the alien gave you something. He was trying to save Earth from an invasion. What he gave you was to help with that.”  
     “Earth doesn't need his help, haven't you seen the news? It's all over the place, the Thanagarians are going to set up a force field generator to fight off the Gordaians.”  
     “No! The Gordanians aren't coming here Hal, the Thanagarians are building a Hyperspace Bypass to destroy Earth so their fleet can reach the Gordanian homeworld, the device Abin Sur gave you is the real force field, one that will protect Earth from the Thanagarians invasion.”  
     “What the Hell are you talking about? Even if that were true how would you know about it?” Hal asked as he stopped to focus on Barry again.  
     “Because I have a source in city hall, she knows exactly what the Thanagarians are doing, she overheard Lieutenant Hol talking to her Commander.” Barry lied, hoping he wasn't putting Kendra in jeopardy by letting this intelligence out.  
     “So say I believe every word you're saying, and this thing” Hal pulled a disc with a blue light in the center out of his pocket to display for Barry “can save the planet. What exactly are we supposed to do with it?”  
     “We need to get to Cape Canaveral, that's where the old aerospace program was based. There's a rocket still mission capable, you have to get that disc to the moon, once the disc is planted stationary on the moon a kind of force field will encircle the Earth along the moon's orbit and the Thanagarians won't be able to get through.” Barry explained.  
     “That is an insane plan. Just truly terrible. How are we supposed to get to Florida?”  
     “I can run-” Barry was interrupted.  
     “You are not carrying me across the entire country!” Hal insisted.  
     “Well I could fly you there in twice the time but you'd probably catch fire.” As Firestorm spoke Hal jumped and started away from the man he thought was Deathstorm.  
     “Hal this is Firestorm, he's with me, he's just pretending to be Deathstorm.” Barry said, trying to calm the man. Hal didn't look reassured, but he didn't bolt.  
***  
     Commander Talak stood before Emperor Savage and a number of other high ranking men as he explained their plan to construct a force shield around Earth. Kendra stood quietly at Vandal's side, trying to project the same confidence Shayera Hol would show in her mission in front of her commander and fiance. She was amazed by the Thanagarians that stood in this room, so many people who were born with the wings she'd only had for a year or so now, she had a difficult time believing they were aliens, and that they wanted to destroy Earth. Surely even just being aliens didn't make them so different that they _wanted_ to destroy Earth, Gideon had said that this was all to save their planet from another alien world that was invading their own. _Surely there must be a way to save their world and win their war without destroying Earth?_  
     After an impressive presentation displaying footage of the horrors the Gordanians would unleash on Earth as they had on Thanagar and speeches all around from both Humans and Hawkmen a celebration was ordered by Savage to compliment their new alliance. Kendra could see that a number of Savage's generals were less enthusiastic about the partnership than Savage appeared and she hoped her hints and Savage's natural distrust of others were keeping the dictator wary, hopefully he was just that good of an actor. Kendra excused herself from the festivities and escaped to her room in Savage's home, what was essentially a palace.  
     “What are you looking at?” Hro said as he approached her where she now stood looking out at the city of Metropolis from the large windows that lined one whole wall.  
     “Earth. Do we really have to destroy it? This world has barely begun reaching to the stars and there are so many species here that will go extinct, do we really need to destroy all these lives?”  
     “Why are you asking these questions Shayera?”  
     “I'm only wondering if there is a way to route the Hyperspace Bypass through uninhabited worlds, it's just an idea.” Kendra said calmly, trying to avoid showing weakness to the warrior.  
     “Changing the course of the bypass now would set us back five years, Thanagar will be in ruins by then. For Thanagar to live Earth must die.” Hro stated decisively.  
     “Earth and the Gordanian homeworld, and how many other planets will we destroy afterwards?”  
     “Have you forgotten why we fight? What horrors the Gordanians have unleashed against us? My long years rotting in their stinking prison camps? I haven't!” Hro was shouting by the end as he tore off his mask to reveal a horribly scarred face that Kendra wasn't prepared for. Flinching back unconsciously from the scars and the rage in his eyes Kendra must have reacted as Shayera would not and Hro struck her across the face before she realized he would attack her. “I am your commander! You will not question me!” Hro shouted as he struck again and Kendra was so shocked by the blinding pain in her shoulder that she couldn't recall what she should do, what wouldn't give her away as an imposter and under the heavy blows raining down on her she decided to defend herself and swung Shayera's mace at Hro. He caught it before she could land a blow and tore the weapon from her hand, grabbing her by the throat and tearing her helm off as he slammed her against the window. The sudden pain in her wings at the impact broke her concentration and her wings disappeared, immediately halting Hro's assault.  
     The Hawkman flung her away and she landed hard, the air knocked from her lungs. “Who are you? You aren't my Shayera!” Hro demanded, standing over her and raising Shayera's mace high.  
***  
     “You don't ever get to tell anyone that I let you carry me.” Hal said self-consciously as the speedster set him back on his feet at the bottom of the scaffold that rose beside the rocket.  
     “Just get in the rocket Hal.” The man who looked like but said he wasn't Deathstorm said. Hal still didn't trust the burning man, but he did remember what the alien, Abin Sur had told him. _“All life is precious to you Hal Jordan, I know you have the courage to protect this world.”_  
     “I'll go find mission control and start reading manuals!” The speedster cried as he zoomed off.  
     Mr. Not Deathstorm nodded to him and took off into the sky, probably on the lookout for trouble. With a heavy sigh Hal started climbing the scaffold, quickly leaving the ground and thoughts of the strangers behind as he focused on the ladder. _Doesn't this thing have an elevator? Oh._ The elevator was three ladders up and took him to the walkway that held the rocket at the hatch to the cockpit. Climbing inside he strapped himself in and found a headset on a hook above the control panel that he put on.  
     “Hello?” He asked the headset.  
     “Hal! Good, you're there, so it looks like the startup sequence is...um...”  
     The speedster didn't seem at all certain about the switches and dials he was reading off for Hal to flip and turn and Hal had to bite back his irritation at the way he was getting nervous. _He loved flying and he'd always wanted to go to space, did the speedster really need to ruin this moment for him?_  
     The rocket blasted off and in a quick glance through the window on his left Hal saw the burning man flying a circuit of the launchpad, rising through the sky with the rocket. Hal assumed he meant to keep pace with the rocket as long as he was able, until the air grew too thin for his powers to work in order to protect the rocket. _Maybe he really isn't Deathstorm then._ He had to focus on the flight though, this was no time for idle thoughts. The rocket met more turbulence than he'd ever experienced in a fighter jet before it broke the atmosphere and Hal felt the weightlessness of space take hold as he reached for the navigational computer to plot the course to the moon.  
     The landing was more of a crash than Hal had intended, and he was pretty sure the speedster had gotten something in the landing sequence wrong, but Hal supposed he couldn't outright blame the man since this was his first time flying a rocket. The space suit he had to wear to take the ArcNet to the moon's surface was easier to put on than he'd expected though, which had him worrying that he'd put it on wrong. Setting up the device was easier than one-two-three however, he just placed it on the moon's surface and pressed the button and the ArcNet sorted itself out, rising from the surface just a bit and sending out streamers of blue light to orient itself in some alien way.  
     Stepping back Hal looked up at Earth in grand view before him. The ArcNet sent threads of blue light out encircling the world like a ball of yarn and Hal could see the first handful of Thanagarian ships slip through before the net closed and the remaining fleet shattered against it spreading out a spectacularly horrifying debris field that nearly obscured his view of Earth entirely.  
     _How the Hell was he supposed to get back to Earth? That damn speedster didn't say anything about a return trip!_ Hal suddenly realized. He'd left the headset back on the rocket, which was damaged now anyway, and Hal realized that he had just willingly stranded himself on the moon. He looked down at the suit and checked the oxygen regulator, already half-empty, _how was that possible? Was it leaking?_ He knew he'd put on the suit wrong. Looking back to the gulf of space between himself and his planet Hal saw a green streak of light leave Earth and barrel through the debris field towards him.  
***  
     Killer Frost watched the first Thanagarian ships rain down from the sky as a blue light briefly flared across the sky followed by small blooms of flame behind the oncoming spacecrafts. There were only a dozen or so ships that made it through before the ArcNet must have been set up but they spilled forth hundreds of smaller fighter ships that began a bombardment of the planet below them.  
     “This is Metropolis Command to all Guard Teams! This is Emperor Vandal Savage's direct order: the Thanagarians are attempting to destroy the planet Earth, detain or destroy all Thanagarians and their vessels immediately. Repeat-” Killer Frost stopped listening to the transmitting device in her ear as she raised a bridge of ice towards the oncoming fighter ships. Lances of ice sent one ship after another careening out of control to the ground and green energy blasted through the sky around her as Atomic Skull took his own shots at the ships. He was an entertaining one, she wondered if her Earth had one of those. She heard Silver Banshee wailing though she doubted it would have much affect unless one of the ships got past her and Atomic Skull and actually came in range of the woman's voice. Killer Frost supposed that the other members of this guard team would be ducking for cover from the crashing ships, since she doubted Cheetah and Copperhead had any kind of long range ability that would be of any use. That wasn't her problem though, she was having too much fun, or she was until she was swallowed in a flash of pink light and reappeared on the bridge of the Waverider with the rest of the 'team' she was now a forced member of.  
***  
     The whole Thanagarian flag ship shook around her and Kendra realized that they were under attack. There wasn't much she could do about it from behind the blue forcefield she was held prisoner in, tied to a pipe that hung from the ceiling for supposedly that very purpose Kendra could do nothing as one blast after another rocked the ship. Through the forcefield she saw a man in red with a white cape and a lightning bolt on his chest smash through one wall and fly strait in through another, ripping his way through to the next room, he must have been another of Savage's Elite Guards. After a louder commotion of rending metal the ship below her feet suddenly dropped and just as the Thanagarian ship fell from the sky Kendra disappeared in a flash of pink light and reappeared on the Waverider.  
***  
     Mick shared a drink with Lisa, well, it had been more than one by now. She'd managed to follow him when he left the rebels base behind and had somehow convinced him to explain who he really was and what he was doing here. She seemed disappointed that he didn't have any secret information about Savage's operations like his counterpart on this Earth might, though he doubted anyone had trusted Nazi Heatwave with any big secrets, but she was pleased to hear about his Earth and the adventures he'd had with his Captain Cold and Golden Glider. The name amused her too, and he wondered if she didn't like gold as much on this Earth, maybe she liked platinum, or diamonds or something else instead.  
     Just as she was laughing about some of the puns he could remember Cold baiting the Flash with her expression changed in an instant as her laughter cut off. For a split second Mick watched the expression of surprise appear on Lisa's face as he disappeared in the pink light that meant he was being returned to the Waverider.  
***  
     Ronnie had halted his flight beside the rocket when he'd begun having difficulty breathing and Martin had explained that he'd reached a point in the atmosphere where the oxygen content was too low to sustain his breathing and soon the fire that kept him flying would be extinguished as well. He hovered there and maybe drifted a little lower as the ArcNet bloomed to life and the first Thanagarian ships were seen breaking through. He was too far from any of the points he could see the ships aiming for so he turned back to fly to mission control where the Flash should still be in communication with Hal.  
     Firestorm was always surprised by the fact that he could be flying through the wide open skies one moment and after a flash of pink light Ronnie and Martin would be standing on the Waverider no longer fused into Firestorm. They both shook off their startled surprise quickly though in order to keep up with Captain Hunter's instructions.  
***  
     Barry was in mission control one moment, sharing Hal's excitement over walking on the moon where so far only those astronauts approved by Vandal Savage's extremely selective aerospace program had been allowed to tread, and the next moment he was on the bridge of the Waverider with the rest of the team.  
     “Welcome back team, mission accomplished. Strap yourselves in, we will be exiting this Earth rather quickly.” Captain Hunter said from his own seat at the front of the ship. The rest of them quickly sat in the six seats around the room behind Rip's own chair as he sent the ship racing through the space between spaces.  
***  
    _“-To all Guard Teams! This ... Vandal Savage... the Thanagarians are attempting to destroy the planet Earth, detain or destroy all Thanaga-”_ Bart couldn't make out the rest of the transmission over the deafening roar of the weapons showering energy projectiles down around his team and all the rest of Metropolis. Captain Marvel and Red Tornado were signaling to the rest of the team to take out as many of the smaller fighter ships as they could reach, that they would be joining another team of fliers that was already targeting the flag ship that the Thanagarian 'ambassadors' had arrived in. Bart couldn't do much about the ships with only the ability to run but with the entire city under bombardment there was a greater job he could do, getting the civilians out of the line of fire.  
     “Red Canary, Hourman! Help me clear the civilians, the others have a better chance at bringing down the fighters anyway!” He called to two of his teammates who likewise could not fly.  
     Hourman spun around from where he was watching the ships darting through the sky to jog towards him whereas Red Canary ignored him as she was trying to hit any of the fighter ships that seemed to come anywhere near in range of her cry. With a sigh Bart turned to Hourman and carried him at superspeed a few blocks away where civilians were trapped under a crumbling building. As Hourman used his strength to lift rubble Bart sped through the streets carrying anyone who wasn't yet trapped where he couldn't get to them out of harms way. When he went back for Hourman's help with those who were trapped he saw that Red Canary had finally joined him leading the civilians around the unsafe streets and clearing rubble in their path with her cry.  
     In the sky above Mary Marvel and Metamorpho were drawing fire away from their efforts below, trying to keep the fighters over cleared areas of the city. There were only two of them for more ships than Bart had time to count but they were smashing as many ships as they were distracting and it looked like they were making progress against the tide.  
     Suddenly in the distance there was a deafening boom and flame and black smoke poured from the Thanagarian flagship as it listed to the side and ultimately began an uncontrolled descent. Many of the fighter ships veered back towards their mothership and fired only halfheartedly at Captain Marvel and Red Tornado as they returned to their team to take down the few remaining fighters with Mary and Metamorpho. The fight was over minutes later and the team gathered on the high ground, choosing the top of what was left of a building to meet. Just as they'd all arrived at the spontaneously chosen point a green light streaked through the sky coming closer until it resolved into a man silhouetted in a green luminescence who didn't seem to know how to fly properly. Captain Marvel flew up and caught the man, descending back to where the team had gathered at various heights on the mound of rubble that rose atop the half shattered skyscraper that used to be the Daily Planet. The man thanked Captain Marvel sheepishly as he stood on his own and for some reason shuffled his feet nervously.  
     Below and all around them the people they'd saved looked up at where they stood and cheered like Bart had never seen before, even calling them by name without the anger or fear he was so used to. He was taken aback by the sincere gratitude the people showed for them and he felt himself flushing in embarrassment, he hadn't done what he'd done for recognition, but it felt great. He'd had no idea normal people could actually like metahumans.  
     “That was insane.” Red Canaray commented.  
     “I think it was a good fight.” Metamorpho grinned.  
     “We completed our objective and defeated the enemy.” Red tornado put in robotically.  
     “I'm glad you thought to get the people out of the way Flash.” Mary Marvel told him with a blush and a smile.  
     “Well I thought it was the right thing to do. I think we all did good work today, you saved them too by stopping those spaceships. I'm just amazed that the people we saved are actually thanking us. I think we should do things like this more often. I mean, without the alien invasion part hopefully.” Bart added, still looking down amazed at all of the cheering people. This drew the others attention and they all stared for a moment at their admirers.  
     “What you mean like just saving people?” Captain Marvel asked finally.  
     “We have orders, we can't just go rogue and act as vigilantes.” Hourman said.  
     “If you go rogue I would be bound by my programming to report you to my creator.” Red Tornado insisted.  
     The rest of the team looked at the android nervously. They were all on the same page but Red Tornado was right, he was programmed to follow orders and report anyone who didn't, just plotting this could get them in serious trouble.  
     “Does John Smith have to report us?” Bart asked tentatively, knowing he was one of the few people Red Tornado had included in his own secret project to create a less conspicuous android body so he could live among normal humans and learn about who he was fighting for.  
     Red Tornado almost seemed to tilt his head as he looked back at Bart and considered if his programming could allow the loophole in logic Bart had suggested. “John Smith's directives are not programmed with any such orders, no. I believe if John Smith joined in this venture your secrets would be safe.”  
     The rest of the team breathed a collective sigh of relief at the answer, though a few of them looked between Red Tornado and Bart in confusion over who John Smith was and what he had to do with anything.  
     “So what are we then?” Hourman asked.  
     “How about the Justice League?” Captain Marvel suggested which made Mary giggle childishly.  
     “I think it sounds good.” The man in green spoke up finally. “You mind if I stick with you guys since I just put up a forcefield around the planet that destroyed an entire alien invasion force?”  
     “Woah.” Was all Captain Marvel said.  
     “You have got to tell us that story!” Bart exclaimed, throwing an arm over the man's shoulders and leading the new team away from the crowds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In that first scene, I guess I'm envisioning the Oculus as a center circular room full of computers, with a corridor all around it outside, which has 12 hallways branching off from it like a clock, so the 7th arm would be where the 7 is on a clock from the door to the Oculus where it opens at the 12 on the clock, and the corridors would be hallways that branch off from those arms but don't necessary open onto any other arm. So the Crystal Prison is down the 7th arm from the Oculus. I also haven't decided what most of the watch stations are watching exactly. :)  
> Rip is less concerned about the damage Reverse Flash will do to Earth 528 and the stuff he will see on Earth 877 because his wife and son live in the Panoptichron so that personal tragedy hasn't affected his outlook because it isn't going to happen.  
> Hm... I thought it would be funny if the team was shocked at a female Firestorm, if they're all so used to a male Firestorm, and this isn't Legends of Tomorrow so the Russian woman who merged with Stein didn't happen, so this is everyone's first time hearing about a female firestorm...  
> Eddie Thawne is an Evil Nazi because since he's supposed to be the 'unremarkable Thawne' he's just a follower who joined law enforcement and is doing as he's told because that's how he was raised.  
> So this Earth has a lot of Justice League variations, here's a list that hopefully doesn't make it more confusing: (also the replacement teams are laid out (with a few exceptions) in the way I view the first JL in the list which is: tactician, powerhouse, strong female lead, speed, energy projection, magic/countermagic, fluidity)  
> Before any time travel:  
> League 1: Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent, Diana, Wally West, John Stewart, Shayera Hol, J'onn J'onzz  
> League 2: Bruce Wayne, Kara Kent, Artemis, Bart Allen, Hal Jordan, Kent Nelson, Garth(as Aquaman, King Arthur stayed in Atlantis and sent an emissary to the surface)  
> After time travel, Savage's Elite Guard Teams (if they weren't in the story by name then they are only included here as an idea I was considering, and teams 1 & 2 were based on Luthor's heroes in Superman/Batman: Public Enemies & the villains from JLU also filled gaps here and there):  
> Elite Guard 1: Major Force, Starman, Giganta, Deadshot, Volcana, Tala, Starfire  
> Elite Guard 2: Captain Atom, Power Girl, Katana, Doctor Polaris, Fire, Gentlemen Ghost, Ice  
> Elite Guard 3: Captain Boomerang, Atomic Skull, Cheetah, Copperhead, Deathstorm, Silver Banshee, Killer Frost  
> Elite Guard 4: Red Tornado(the real leader despite Marvel's 'captain' rank making him the official leader), Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, Flash, Hourman, Red Canary, Metamorpho  
> at the end of the chapter, Guard Team 4 becomes the 'first' JL of this Earth:  
> League 3: Red Tornado, Billy and Mary Batson, Bart Allen, Hal Jordan, Dinah Lance, Rex Mason, Rex Tyler (I've been thinking about this way too much, sorry about the long notes)


End file.
